With the increasing trend of digitization, undoubtedly, ecommerce stores have successfully replaced brick-and-mortar retailers. According to the survey report of Statista, global ecommerce retail sales have amounted to $3.53 trillion and it is projected to grow to $6.54 trillion in 2022.

But that has been projected before COVID-19! However, considering the current situation where the pandemic wave has shut down the business of all domains and putting the entire industry at the red alert, on the other side e-retail has noticed a sudden boom. Moreover, it won’t be wrong to say that Covid-19 has pushed the growth of the ecommerce sector to the next level.

If considering the survey reports, it is revealed that 50% of the small businesses are having websites, while 30% of small companies are still planning to invest in web development and the remaining percentage of companies are still assuming the web development is an additional burden for them.

However, the reality is something else! Firstly, many businesses are lacking knowledge of technology, therefore they avoid creating an ecommerce site. Secondly, still many people believe that ecommerce website development may cost you an expensive amount.

So the central question remains the same: how much does it cost to develop an ecommerce website in 2021-22?

Well, there are many website development companies that can estimate it between the brackets of $10,000 to $50,000. However, the cost of ecommerce web development is depending upon the various factors including the type of platform you choose, features and functionalities of the e-store, technologies and tools for the development, the team of website developers, size of the estore and more. It might be tempting to fall for the lowest development price, but before hiring an ecommerce website development company at a cheaper price, it is best to understand that it can be only a marketing trap.

So how can you calculate the ecommerce website development cost?

Here are the guidelines to evaluate the cost of website development:

• Understanding the Factors That Can Influence the Cost of Web Development
• Features and Functionalities to Develop E-commerce store
• Infrastructure Cost: Technologies and Designing of the Website
• The Ongoing Maintenance Cost of the Website
• How Much Does it Overall Cost to Develop an Ecommerce Website?
• Final Words

Let’s get into the detail of each point for better understanding:

1. What Are the Major Factors Influencing the Cost of the Ecommerce Web Development?

While the cost of web development is one of the primary concerns of the businesses, it is important to get the answers to a few questions before getting started with the development process.

The answers to these questions will actually help you frame out what exactly you need for your business and how much it costs you. 

• What type of ecommerce store you are trying to develop? Business to Business or Business to Customer? Firstly you need to decide to whom you are planning to sell your products and services.
• The complexity of the website design, which is completely depending upon the type of estore you want for your business.
• A number of features and functionalities and complexity of the estore. 
• Integration of third party services.
• Choice of a website development team that is depending upon the type of ecommerce development company, freelancer or in-house development team. 
• Cost of the development team that is depending upon the experience, expertise, location, portfolio and more.
• How many products and a variety of products will be there?
• What kind of website hosting solution are you looking for?
• Is your website hosted on ecommerce platforms like WordPress, Magento, Shopify, etc or a separate own site?
• What type of payment solution do you want in your site? PayPal, Authorise, SecurePay and more.

There are many more things that you need to look for, but it is always suggested to hire web developers that can better assist you at the research and planning phase of web development.

2. Features and Functionalities to Develop E-commerce store

For bootstrappers, let’s make it clear that the initial development cost of the ecommerce website only includes the basic version of the site for one platform. So the final cost of developing features and functionalities of the website is directly affected by the number of hours that developers spend on creating each feature.

So let’s split the development process into two categories and understand what type of services you need to include at this stage:

1. Discovery stage: Any reputed website development company will take up around 4 to 6 weeks to complete this development stage. And this is an important stage of web development as without researching and analysing the market or competitors, you are not able to develop a product that helps you stand aside in the market.

So here’s what you need to focus during the discovery phase of the web development:

• Analysing the market scope and competitors.
• What type of features do you need to integrate?
• UX/UI design of the estore
• Type of team you need for the web development
• What budget do you need for web development

2. Development stage: Now the second phase of the development process that can take up to 3 to 6 months, where you need to construct every element of the website which includes:

• Backend and Frontend of the Website
• Quality assurance and testing
• Project management
• Team review

Main Features and Functionalities of the Ecommerce Website

Now let’s move to the main functionalities of the ecommerce website that you need to integrate into the site:

• Email Authorization: Make sure to provide the access to the user by simply registering themself or log in with an email. Customize this feature in a way that users can easily restore the password.
• Social Network Authorization: Registering a profile with the social accounts is always an easy option for the user, so make sure you allow users to log in the ecommerce website with a social network account and able to transfer the data including photo, name, mobile number, email address and more.
• Product Categorization: It is always easy for users to navigate the list of products and services through well categorized and sub-categorized products. If it is complicated for you to understand, then it is worth looking to hire a web developer. 
• Product Search: Allow users to filter the product list by different parameters including range, price, categories, reviews, description, quantity, and more.
• Cart Management: Now this is the soul of your ecommerce website. Make sure users are able to add products to the cart in an easy way and the cost of each product will be automatically calculated in the backend. The cart must have such options including edit, remove, add items, add coupons, promo codes or vouchers to boost the entire shopping experience of the user. 
• Payment Methods: Add multiple options for the payment including debit card, credit card, PayPal and more. Also, enable users to add the list of credit cards or remove them from the profile at any moment. 
• Checkout: Once the payment is done, allow users to check out the profile for the easy and secure shopping experience.
• Track Order History: Order history will help users to make repeat orders easily without surfing the entire website again.
• Feature Products: Highlight the best selling products of your website by simply adding a feature star on that category or product so that users are quickly able to shortlist the best products of your brand.
• Track Analytics: Integrate the best analytic tool to your eCommerce site which helps you in tracking business profit and enables you to understand whether your brand is progressing or not.

So, how much does it cost to develop an ecommerce website with the minimal version?

Here is a breakdown of the major features that usually take up around 3 to 6 months to develop an estimated cost will be approx $40,800+. But it is an estimated cost that can go to any expensive price depending upon the complexity and size of the website.

3. Infrastructure Cost: Technologies and Designing of the Website

Design and website development technologies are the backbone of your ecommerce site. On one side development tools and technologies add up functionality to your website, on the other hand, UX/UI design can help you lead better user experience.

So let’s first discuss what fundamental tools and technologies do you need to build the infrastructure of the ecommerce website and how much does it cost you?

Tools and Technologies For E-Commerce Web Development

a. Choice of Platform

There are a number of platforms available in the market offering a wide choice of libraries and plugins to help you develop an ecommerce site at the budget-friendly cost. So here are the major choices:

• WooCommerce: It is one of the most popular open-source ecommerce solutions that help you turn your WordPress website into an ecommerce store. It is free to set up but you may have to bother with a few other charges including hosting, SSL certifications, domain names, customization development, and more.
• Shopify: It is one of the most trending platforms to develop ecommerce sites in the fastest ways. But it offers limited features and customizations for website development. However, you can access additional features by simply choosing the package ranging from $25 to $399 per month, depending upon how many locations and accounts you want to support
• Magento: This is one of the best platforms for building the enterprise-scale website as it provides a broad choice of extensions to customize the e-retail store. The cost to build an ecommerce site with Magento can be starting from $20,000 and can go up to $100,000.

b. Domain Name Cost

A domain name is your website’s identification that helps users to find your website. And domain name cost is typically incurred every year. So according to the Domain.com, the average price cost for a domain name is varying between $10 to $15 per year. But it can be much more than that if you are trying to purchase the domain name with a very specific term.

c. SSL Certificate Cost

SSL stands for secure socket layers that is one of the most prominent parts of any ecommerce site. This is an encryption certification that ensures users that it is safe to enter your payment and personal details in the shopping cart. In case, if the ecommerce site isn’t secured with the SSL certificate, then people refuse to shop with that site. So you can secure your site by simply spending the cost from $10 to $100 a month, depending upon the hosting plans and site requirements.

d. Web Hosting

Web hosting is like a permanent address of your website on the internet. But the hosting cost can greatly from $3 to $30 per month depending upon the hosting plan you choose for your site.

Design Costs

Website design is one of the most important factors contributing to the development cost. Moreover, a well-thought design can help you get better user experiences, streamline the entire process and allow customers to easily navigate the site. 

Here are the few design attributes that you need to consider:

1. Choosing the Website Theme: There are a number of ecommerce web development platforms that offer you free theme templates and theme frameworks to help you build the website from the scratch without any hassle.  
2. Add-on, plugin, and extension costs: Add-ons and extensions can help you customize the features of your site. Right from forums to chat services, SEO to PPC marketing, these add-ons can help you streamline everything in the ecommerce website. 

4. Ongoing Maintenance Cost of the Website

No matter how brilliantly and smartly you have developed your ecommerce site. To make it run smoothly and stay updated with the latest versions, constant attention and support of the website development team is important. So the central question is, how much does it cost to maintain an ecommerce website? Do you need to bother monthly or yearly maintenance charges?

Well, the average cost to maintain an ecommerce website can be starting from 

$250 to $1000+ per year, depending upon the number of bugs, how deeply it needs to be updated, and current working condition of the site.

Spending on the maintenance of your site may cost you little more, but you can benefit from it right away in your site.

5. How Much Does it Overall Cost to Develop an Ecommerce Website?

Most businesses are leveraging the perks of having an ecommerce website, but still many people hesitate to invest in development just because of its development cost and the technologies required for the development. 

If you are also one of those who are still in the same dilemma, then it is the right time to understand that development and coding an ecommerce site is quite easy and hassle-free with the Magento development company as compared to the in-house development team. 

However, predicting the exact overall development cost can be a challenging task even for the expert developers as it is depending upon the number of factors including frontend/backend development, UX/UI designing, digital strategies, quality testing, copywriting, images, planning, payment gateway, domain registration and more.

Still,  the overall development cost of the website can be starting from $15,000+, if you choose to collaborate with the right web development company.  

Wrapping Up

In the end, hopefully, you have unlocked the answer to the most requested question “how much does it cost to develop an Ecommerce website?”. As you can notice that there are various complex factors adding up to the cost, therefore, to get the accurate development cost, it is worth hiring the Ecommerce website development company. Instead, offering the standard price and services, the team will deeply analyse the requirements, layout the best technologies and development methodologies and then offer you the best suitable development cost.

To make your decision, you can quickly take a tour of the Portfolio and drop your query to the experts. They will revert you within 24 working hours and assist you with the best possible solutions.